Making research to explore emerging practices

Abstract

At Making Futures Conference 2015 Katie Hill and Lizzie Harrison submitted a proposal to facilitate a making workshop as part of the conference programme. The proposal built upon an emerging practice of using practical craft and making methods as part of research processes. Hill and Harrison had previously used these methods with maker communities to explore issues around ethical production and consumption as well as other applications of the methods. In conversation with the workshop chair, Nick Gant, this proposal developed into an activity that ran throughout the two day conference. Delegates were invited to contribute to a collaborative practical record of the conference material through the method of mixed media collage. The activity space was located at the centre of the workshop space directly in front of the presentation screen with seating around it. The activity was introduced at the beginning of both days of the conference, and Hill or Harrison were available throughout the conference to explain and facilitate contributions to the collaborative work. At the end of the two days there was a collective discussion around made piece of work. This paper presents images of the work with an introduction to the method. The intention is that it presents in itself a record of the conference that is open to individual analysis and elicitation of understandings of questions that were raised through the conference papers. The authors have decided not to offer their own analysis of this collaborative piece.